Expedient routes to valuable bromo-5,6-dimethoxyindole building blocks

The synthesis of 3-, 4-, 7-bromo and 4,7-dibrominated 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI) and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (DHICA) derivatives is reported. Hemetsberger and Bartoli indole syntheses were investigated and expedient routes to the desired compounds were developed. These indoles are valuable substrates for elaboration using transition metal-mediated cross-coupling chemistry.     

A new and efficient one-pot synthesis of indoles

The synthesis of indoles is accomplished in high yields from phenylhydrazines and pyruvic acid using microwave irradiation.     

A combination of water and microwave irradiation promotes the catalyst-free addition of pyrroles and indoles to nitroalkenes

A combination of water and microwave irradiation was used for the first time to perform a catalyst-free nitro-Michael addition of pyrroles and indoles. Under superheated conditions, the water trends to ionize by changing its chemical and physical properties. Therefore, we performed a new green-protocol using the water either as environmentally no harm solvent or as catalyst. The reaction success is independent from the kind of pyrrole, indole or nitroalkenes rapidly affording the corresponding adducts and giving excellent yields.     

Biorenewable and mercaptoacetylating building blocks in the Biginelli reaction: synthesis of thiosugar-annulated dihydropyrimidines

A novel version of the Biginelli reaction using an unprotected aldose as a biorenewable aldehyde component and 2-methyl-2-phenyl-1,3-oxathiolan-5-one as a mercaptoacetylating active methylene building block with urea/thiourea is reported. The reaction is nanoclay-catalysed, expeditious and effected under solvent-free microwave irradiation conditions in a one-pot procedure to yield diastereoselectively, thiosugar-annulated multifunctionalized dihydropyrimidines via intramolecular domino cyclocondensation reactions of an isolable intermediate.     

Toward the assembly of heparin and heparan sulfate oligosaccharide libraries: efficient synthesis of uronic acid and disaccharide building blocks

The monosaccharide moieties found in heparin (HP) and heparan sulfate (HS), glucosamine and two kinds of uronic acids, glucuronic and iduronic acids, were efficiently synthesized by use of glucosamine hydrochloride and glucurono-6,3-lactone as starting compounds. In the synthesis of the disaccharide building block, the key issues of preparation of uronic acids (glucuronic acid and iduronic acid moieties) were achieved in 12 steps and 15 steps, respectively, without cumbersome C-6 oxidation. The resulting monosaccharide moieties were utilized to the syntheses of HP/HS disaccharide building blocks possessing glucosamine-glucuronic acid (GlcN-GlcA) or iduronic acid (GlcN-IdoA) sequences. The disaccharide building blocks were also suitable for further modification such as glycosylation, selective deprotection, and sulfation.     

Microwave-assisted synthesis of indole-derivatives via cycloisomerization of 2-alkynylanilines in water without added catalysts, acids, or bases

An unprecedented green methodology is described for the preparation of differently substituted indoles via microwave-assisted cycloisomerization of 2-alkynylaniline derivatives in water. Moderate to good yields in the cyclization can be achieved for a variety of 2-aminoaryl alkynes. Reactions are run without any added metal catalyst, acid, or base, and do not take place by applying conventional heating.     

Synthesis of indolylalkylphosphonates and 3-(1-diphenylphosphinoalkyl) indoles by reaction of 3-(1-arylsulfonylalkyl) indoles with phosphorus derivatives

Dialkyl phosphites as well as diphenylphosphine react with 3-(1-arylsulfonylalkyl) indoles under basic conditions leading to a formal substitution of the arylsulfonyl group through a reactive 3-alkylidene indole intermediate.     

Solvent-free, ruthenium-catalyzed, regioselective ring-opening of epoxides, an efficient route to various 3-alkylated indoles

Ruthenium-catalyzed regioselective ring-opening of aliphatic and aryl epoxides under solvent-free conditions is reported. It was found that RuCl₃·nH₂O catalyzes the Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indoles, providing 3-alkylated derivatives in good yields under mild reaction conditions.     

A double heteroatom Mitsunobu coupling with amino hydroxybenzoic acids on solid phase: a novel application of the Mitsunobu reaction to form dendron building blocks

A new highly efficient double heteroatom Mitsunobu coupling with amino hydroxybenzoic acids on solid phase is described. The synthetic routes reported in this work are general and applicable for the preparation of diverse building blocks, controlling protection, arm length, chirality, and peripheral functional groups. These novel units can form unusual dendritic architectures, which could be incorporated into specific complex structures, expanding the scope of dendrimer science.     

An efficient, microwave-assisted, one-pot synthesis of indoles under Sonogashira conditions

A microwave-assisted, one-pot, three-component coupling reaction for the synthesis of indoles has been developed. The reaction is carried out in two steps under standard Sonogashira coupling conditions from an N-substituted/N,N-disubstituted 2-iodoaniline and a terminal alkyne, followed by the addition of acetonitrile and an aryl iodide. A variety of polysubstituted indoles have been prepared in moderate to excellent yields using the present method.     

Synthesis of iduronic acid building blocks for the modular assembly of glycosaminoglycans

The modular synthesis of glycosaminoglycans requires straightforward methods for the production of large quantities of protected uronic acid building blocks. In particular, the preparation of fully differentiated iduronic acids has proven particularly challenging. An efficient route to methyl 3-O-benzyl-1,2-O-isopropylidene-alpha-l-idopyranosiduronate 6 from diacetone glucose in nine steps and 36% overall yield is described. Idopyranosiduronate 6 is useful as a glycosyl acceptor and as an intermediate that may be further elaborated into iduronic acid trichloroacetimidate glycosyl donors for the assembly of glycosaminoglycan structures as illustrated here.     

Concise and efficient synthesis of eliglustat

Eliglustat, a ceramide glucosyltransferase inhibitor, was synthesized in six steps with 28.4% overall yield. The key features include the use of a diastereoselective aldol reaction to construct two contiguous stereocenters and a selective sulfonylation of a 1,3-diol catalyzed by dibutyltin oxide.     

Biomolecule-directed assembly of nanoscale building blocks studied via lattice Monte Carlo simulation

We perform lattice Monte Carlo simulations to study the self-assembly of functionalized inorganic nanoscale building blocks using recognitive biomolecule linkers. We develop a minimal coarse-grained lattice model for the nanoscale building block (NBB) and the recognitive linkers. Using this model, we explore the influence of the size ratio of linker length to NBB diameter on the assembly process and the structural properties of the resulting aggregates, including the spatial distribution of NBBs and aggregate topology. We find the constant-kernel Smoluchowski theory of diffusion-limited cluster-cluster aggregation describes the aggregation kinetics for certain size ratios.     

De novo design of molecular architectures by evolutionary assembly of drug-derived building blocks

An evolutionary algorithm was developed for fragment-based de novo design of molecules (TOPAS, TOPology-Assigning System). This stochastic method aims at generating a novel molecular structure mimicking a template structure. A set of 25,000 fragment structures serves as the building block supply, which were obtained by a straightforward fragmentation procedure applied to 36,000 known drugs. Eleven reaction schemes were implemented for both fragmentation and building block assembly. This combination of drug-derived building blocks and a restricted set of reaction schemes proved to be a key for the automatic development of novel, synthetically tractable structures. In a cyclic optimization process, molecular architectures were generated from a parent structure by virtual synthesis, and the best structure of a generation was selected as the parent for the subsequent TOPAS cycle. Similarity measures were used to define `fitness', based on 2D-structural similarity or topological pharmacophore distance between the template molecule and the variants. The concept of varying library `diversity' during a design process was consequently implemented by using adaptive variant distributions. The efficiency of the design algorithm was demonstrated for the de novo construction of potential thrombin inhibitors mimicking peptide and non-peptide template structures.     

De novo synthesis of uronic acid building blocks for assembly of heparin oligosaccharides

An efficient de novo synthesis of uronic acid building blocks is described. The synthetic strategy relies on the stereoselective elongation of thioacetal protected dialdehydes 12 a and 17. The dialdehydes are prepared from D-xylose, a cheap and commercially available source. A highly stereoselective MgBr(2)OEt(2)-mediated Mukaiyama aldol addition to C4-aldehyde 12 a is performed to obtain D-glucuronic acid building block 16, whereas L-iduronic acid building block 22 is prepared by MgBr(2)OEt(2)-mediated cyanation of C5-aldehyde 17. Synthesis of a heparin disaccharide demonstrates the utility of the de novo strategy for the assembly of glycosaminoglycan oligosaccharides.     

Microwave-assisted synthesis of indole- and azaindole-derivatives in water via cycloisomerization of 2-alkynylanilines and alkynylpyridinamines promoted by amines or catalytic amounts of neutral or basic salts

An efficient methodology is described and exploited for the preparation of differently substituted indoles and azaindoles via microwave-assisted cycloisomerization in water of 2-alkynylanilines and alkynylpyridinamines, which is promoted by catalytic amounts of neutral or basic salts or by stoichiometric weak organic bases. Good to high yields in the cyclization can be achieved for a variety of 2-amino(hetero)aryl alkynes. Reactions are run without any added metal catalyst. A comparison with the cycloisomerization conducted under conventional heating is also described.     

A principle for the assembly of novel mononuclear building blocks for supramolecular chemistry

Abstract

The controlled assembly of supramolecular coordination oligomers may be achieved by the use of multinucleating ligands which contain two or more metal-binding domains. Examples of such ligands commonly consist of discrete metal-binding sites linked by appropriate spacers. We now show that a consideration of the donor properties of a ligand and the acceptor properties of a metal ion may be used to induce multinucleating behaviour in oligopyridine ligands which conventionally chelate to single metal centres. Such species are key building blocks for the assembly of a variety of supramolecular species in which the non-coordinated donor atoms may later interact with other metal centres. The crystal structure of the complex [Ru(bpy-N,N′)₂(tpy-N,N′)][PF₆]₂ ( P 1, a = 8.367(2), b = 11.821(4), c = 19.398(5)Å, α = 93.83(2), β = 92.25(2), γ = 89.62(2)°, Z = 2, d _c = 1.63 g cm^?3, 5084 unique observed reflections with I < 1.5σ(I), R = 0.0745) which contains a bidentate tpy ligand is presented.